[originaltext] Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, m

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, may be less famous than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but today most people still remember him as a statesman, an author, and an architect. He was tutored privately until he entered the College of William and Mary. In 1773, Jefferson married Martha Wales Skelton and settled with his bride at Monticello, the mountaintop home which he had designed himself and whose construction was to extend over 50 years. Jefferson served in the House of Burgesses, Virginia’s parliament, until it ceased to function in 1775. Not a gifted public speaker, he was most talented as a literary draftsman. His most important contribution to the revolutionary cause before 1776 was his Summary View of the Rights of British America, composed for the Virginia Convention of 1774; he was elected to the committee to draft a declaration of independence from England. In 1779, Jefferson was elected governor of the state of Virginia. Having served as vice-president in John Adams’ administration, Jefferson ran for president in the election of 1800. The most outstanding accomplishment of his administration was the purchase of Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. Upon his death in 1826, Jefferson was buried under a stone which described him as he had wished to be remembered: as the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the father of University of Virginia.